What happens to the books that we mail to incarcerated people? They are loved, cherished, shared, and read until they fall apart.

Appalachian Prison Book Project
Challenging mass incarceration through books, education, and community engagement.
What happens to the books that we mail to incarcerated people? They are loved, cherished, shared, and read until they fall apart.
There are many times when we cannot accept a book donation. Often, it's because prisons and jails won't allow them.
An overwhelming and exciting majority of the hundreds of letters we receive each week are directly from incarcerated people in Appalachia, but not all of our correspondence is from the people behind bars. Sometimes, we get letters or emails from…
Read More Religion Behind Bars: A Request to Create a Rastafarian Library
Grateful to AmeriCorps and friends from Thomas, WV, who organized a book drive and dropped off loads of material (over 800 books!) that APBP needs, including dictionaries & legal guides. They persevered through rain & snow to do good work!…
We have collected letters with very specific requests that we cannot fill because we don't have what they want in our storage space. We've reached out to our wonderful network for donations. Posting here because the list is so interesting!…
Every now and then someone in prison sends APBP a donation. Usually this comes in the form of 5 or 10 dollars. The other day we received a check for $150.00 from a man incarcerated in Pound VA. He thanked…
Ms. Molly McCoid, class of 2016 at the Linsly School in Wheeling, organized a book drive for APBP. Molly collected and transported over 300 books to our work space! One of the many wonderful things about APBP is exactly this--we…
Read More Thanks to Molly McCoid and the Linsly School in Wheeling!
Many thanks to author Maya Schenwar who has donated copies of her book, Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn't Work and How We Can Do Better, to APBP. You can learn more about her important book at https://www.bkconnection.com/books/title/locked-down,-locked-out
We want to thank Shambhala Publications in Boston for donating 14 copies of _Writing Down the Bones_ to the Hazelton Women's Book Club! It is especially wonderful to have new books to give to these dedicated readers. Thanks also to…
Earlier this summer, the United Methodist Churches of the Boothsville charge in Marion County, West Virginia, collected hundreds of books for the APBP and even built beautiful handmade bookcases to help hold them. Pictured below is Tanya Devine, who organized…